This dissertation focused on leaders within the dietetics profession and allowed their "voice" to be heard related to their specific personal and lived experiences throughout their own career pathways. A total of twenty participants (eighteen women and two men) were selected for this qualitative research study. I completed twenty in-depth face-to-face and phone interviews, which each lasted approximately 90 minutes. Narrative inquiry analysis was used to identify some of the key themes that emerged from the findings. A total of five key themes emerged as they related to participants' career pathway and leadership development. Mentoring was one theme that emerged; the participants shared how family, education, and professional colleagues influenced their career pathway development. A second theme was career pathways, which focused on traditional and non-traditional pathways toward becoming a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist (RDN) and how certain issues/events caused career pathway shifts to occur. The third theme related to specific successes and barriers faced Chapter

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